Tom Hesse

Tom Hesse has over 20 years of government affairs experience. In 2013, Tom founded Tom Hesse Consulting LLC to provide public policy research and consulting services to corporate, trade association and non-profit clients. Tom can thoroughly research identified issues, provide policy options for consideration, and prepare collateral materials (one-pagers, draft testimony, etc.) for the selected policy choice; provide detailed “white papers” on issues of concern including 50-state or regional analyses, and generate more simple summaries of bills, statutes or administrative rules to determine opportunities for change.

Most of Tom’s career was spent at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce where he served in various capacities including Vice-President of Government Affairs. During his time at the Minnesota Chamber, Tom was at the center of many of the state’s most controversial debates on business issues, including property tax reform, corporate income tax reform, workers’ compensation reform, unemployment insurance tax restructuring, and various tort reform initiatives. He also has experience with education, energy, health care and transportation policy, among others. Under his leadership, the Minnesota Chamber was named Politics in Minnesota’s 2011 Business Leader in Public Policy.

Tom is a member of the Operations and Strategy Committee for the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence and also was a founding Board member of Minnesotans Against Lawsuit Abuse. Tom was appointed to the Unemployment Insurance Advisory Council, Workers’ Compensation Advisory Council (alternate member), Transportation Strategic Management and Operations Task Force, Essential Benefit Set Working Group, and Collaborative Governance Council. Tom also presented at the Council on State Taxation Annual Tax Policy Conference, State Bar Association Business Law Institute, Workers’ Compensation CLE, Tax Executives Institute, various Minnesota Chamber meetings and conferences, and testified in front of countless Minnesota House and Senate Committees.

Tom has a Masters of Business Administration degree with concentrations in Corporate Finance and Business Economics from Indiana University and a Bachelors of Mathematics from the University of Minnesota.